Quite. There's yet another variant on the XML/OO serialisation idea
at: "Java Serialization Using RDF with Schemas"
http://wave.eecs.wsu.edu/CKRMI/JSRDF.html (appears to require Java1.1
browser though), which gets around this by using RDF/XML, since RDF
introduces conventions that do let you deduce, for previously
unencountered vocabularies, which constructs refer to properties,
classes and so on.
BTW there's a slight mismatch between RDF's notion of a "class" and Java's;
RDF allowers more free-flowing annotation, so you can attach properties
(eg. price, color) to resources that belong to a class whose original
definition didn't anticipate such annotations. Properties are defined in
terms of the class they're applied to and the type of value they have; I
believe the post below refers to an earlier version of RDF Schemas where
each class had associated "allowedPropertyTypes". In practice this was
essentially the same mechanism as the domain/range mechanism now on
offer <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-schema/>, although
allowedPropertyType had a more OOish feel.
Dan
Original RDF-DEV post follows:
> To further understand RDF with Schemas, people (especially
> Java developers) might want to take a look at our pages on
> "Java Serialization Using RDF with Schemas" at the address
> http://wave.eecs.wsu.edu/CKRMI/JSRDF.html.
> Here we automatically translate all packages and classes
> in the Java API into RDF/Schemas, we give some source code,
> and we also translate an example of Bill LaForge's which
> demonstrates Java Serialization using RDF/Schemas of some
> simple Java classes and instances that have inheritance, arrays,
> and reference loops.
> Robert
> _________________________________________________
> Robert E. Kent email: rekent@eecs.wsu.edu
-- Daniel.Brickley@bristol.ac.uk Institute for Learning and Research Technology http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. tel: +44(0)117 9288478